27 December 2011
Holy Smoke
Believe in me - send no money
I died on the cross, that ain't funny
But my so-called friends they're making me a joke
They missed out what I said like I never spoke
They choose what they want to hear - don't tell a lie
They just leave out the truth as they're watching you die
Saving your souls by taking your money
Flies around s**t, bees around honey
Holy smoke, holy smoke
Plenty bad preachers for the Devil to stoke
Feed them in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making holy smoke yeah
Making holy smoke
Jimmy Reptile and all his friends
Say they going to be with you at the end
Burning records, burning books
Holy soldiers, Nazi looks
Crocodile smiles just wait a while
Till the TV Queen gets her make-up clean
I've lived in filth, I've lived in sin
And I still smell cleaner than the s**t you're in
Holy smoke, holy smoke
There's plenty bad preachers for the Devil to stoke
Feed them in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making holy smoke yeah
Holy smoke - smells good
They ain't religious but they ain't no fools
When Noah built his Cadillac it was cool
Two by two they're still going down
And the satellite circus just left town
I think they're strange and when they're dead
They can have a Lincoln for their bed
Friend of the President trick of the tail
Now they ain't got a prayer 100 years in jail
Holy smoke, holy smoke
Plenty bad preachers for the Devil to stoke
Feed them in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making holy smoke
Holy smoke
24 December 2011
Book Review: Interview with Gods
If you read this book as a novel, the plot is too simple - a group of friends (members of a non-political, non-violence ecologically focused group called One Planet) were contacted by "External Consciousness". In order to protect the information these people got, the USA secret service killed them all.
The "meat" of the book is the five chapters presented as the interviews with External Consciousness by these members of One Planet. If read as fiction, it is dry. Basically, it is External Consciousness explaining how a higher intelligence has designed the "biomatrix" - the biological system on Earth, the developments and so on. If read as science, well it is non science! The first interview is about the creation. Poised as a description of how Universe has evolved and how life on earth has evolved, the chapter is full of voodoo promoted by people such as Deepak Chopra.
I would not recommend reading this as fact or science. I would not recommend reading as novel too.
Also published on Random Walk in Learning
22 December 2011
21 December 2011
Hitchens Has Risen
News has been spreading that Christopher Hitchens has risen from death after reportedly died three days ago. Here is the evidence.
If you do not believe what I have said, why you would believe in the old books claiming Jesus has risen from the death?
If you do not believe what I have said, why you would believe in the old books claiming Jesus has risen from the death?
17 December 2011
16 December 2011
15 December 2011
14 December 2011
The Autobiography of a Secular Humanist
by V.N.K. Kumar
Some quotes below:
Some quotes below:
I became more and more convinced that god must have many psychological problems, even if we asssume that he exists. For one thing, he seems so insecure. He demands worship from everyone — praising him, pleading for money, requesting relief from illness. Why should an omnipotent, omniscient & omnibenevolent being need this flattery if he is omnipotent and solicitation for help if he is omniscient & omnibenevolent (He should know who needs what kind of help at which time, shouldn’t he?). Perhaps, I reasoned to myself, this makes him feel powerful, which shows his inferiority complex and insecurity. Secondly, he goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. So even if hypothetically we assume that he exists, I felt that he doesn’t deserve my respect and adoration.
I found out through Comparative Religion that every religion thinks it is true. But I concluded that all 10,000 + currently alive religions cannot be true simultaneously, though they can all be false simultaneously. I discovered the difference between science and religion. When knowledge is inadequate, science poses a question, but religion proposes a belief.
So it seemed to me that God was rapidly losing his job as an explanation for things we don’t understand.
However, the biggest advantage to believing in god(s) — apart from the comforts of believing in everyday protection in this life, and immortality for self & Ultimate Justice for people who have deliberately hurt us, in the afterlife – is that you don’t have to unnecessarily tax your brain cells to learn & understand anything worthwhile about the origins of the Universe, life & humans — no physics, no biology, no geology, no paleontology, no anthropology, no evolutionary psychology, no neurotheology, no comparative religion, no nothing. Most of the religious people do not have any in-depth knowledge of these subjects and also have not cultivated the art of logical & critical reasoning and hence lull themselves into a sense of self-complacency thinking that their puerile religiosity is unquestionable.
I confess I wanted to learn & understand and didn’t mind the effort required . And so I ended up as an atheist cum secular humanist.
13 December 2011
10 December 2011
09 December 2011
Will USA survive till 2025?
While I disagree with Pat Buchanan's notion that America is founded on a Christian value and it will be the Christian value to hold America together, the signs of the collapse of USA are too obvious to anyone. It is strange that those within USA cannot see it coming. You may buy the 4-hour audio book via the Amazon link or download here.
Financially, there are two problems:
(1) 15 Trillion government debts which is about 100% GDP of USA, and with about another 55 Trillion (present discounted value) of committed medicare and social securities in the pipeline.
(2) The trade deficit has been increasing and there is no sign of reversal. We all know that a household cannot get out of trouble by more borrowing, ditto for a country.
However there are some good news. Of the 8 Trillion, only 8% are in foreign ownership. That means if USA government defaults, if won't be a foreign power forcing her to do so. Of the 55 Trillion debts for the future, a large trunk is related to healthcare. At present, USA is spending, per capital, twice as much as the average of developed countries (the next 4 highest spenders average USD4000 per capital verses USA's UDS8000) [source], adapting any other country's healthcare system will save the government at least half of the CBO debts.
Socially, there are
(1) large inequalities of income
(2) overblown healthcare expenses
(3) declining performances of the educational system [some sample data]
(4) delusional public wishful thinking that a god may save you
Politically, the current system is completely corrupted.
It is dominated by warmongers. USA is currently engaged in two wars (that we know of) and maintaining a huge number of military bases oversea . The defense spending (should be called the aggression budget) is larger than seven of the next highest spenders combined. How could a population of 5% (globally) spend 46% of global total military expenses? How could it be sustainable?
In China, just an example, if a government official is found corrupted, s/he may be executed. While I do not condone corruption and capital punishment, at least symbolically, the government is against corruption. The USA political system has now corrupted to the point that such bribery has been legalized to be called "lobbying". Occupy Wall Street movements has been calling out loud and clear than citizens demand cleaning up the corruption and put Wall Street in check. Has any political leader acknowledged the cry and at least commence a dialog?
This brings me to the reason I am writing this post. Here is a potential occupant of the White House. What are the issues he focused on? People going to church? Gay marriages?
Here is a response I approve.
and this is a most appropriate one to the stupidity of USA's possible future "leader".
To remain strong, the first step is to acknowledge that USA is weak now. Do some evidence-based researching and come up with some good policies to help USA citizens to get back up on their feet, make a decent living and rebuild from the ground up. There is no god and hence there will be no divine help anytime soon. To fund the rebuild, get the tax rates back to the 1950's to the 1960's. I want to see USA back on her feet not only because I have three sisters and mothers in USA (as legal citizens), I hate to see those desperately clinging to power use the horrible weapons of mass destruction to her own people or to some other countries. USA has a lot WMDs and still refuses to be scrutinized by neutral international bodies! The collapse of an economy and/or a country is going to be bloody and painful - for everyone.
Liz Heywood and her story
A guest contributor posted the following story at Friendly Atheist
The last day of my childhood was Saturday, November 22nd, 1975. I was thirteen years old.
I galloped my horse through the woods, then I rode my bike to a friend’s house and we ran together all afternoon. I’d had no injury, but that night my left knee swelled like a melon; by bedtime I could barely walk. In a matter of weeks, so much pus was draining from my knee and running down my leg that my parents put a cookie sheet underneath to catch it. Within a month I was bedridden — and stayed that way for almost a year. Another six months in a wheelchair left me a teenager with a fused, hideously deformed leg and emotionally crippled by post-traumatic stress disorder.
Yet I never saw a doctor. I never received any medical treatment. I was a third-generation Christian Scientist living in Lexington, Massachusetts, within twenty miles of the Mother Church in Boston. My parents treated the sudden infection in my knee the same way they treated every illness: by having a Christian Science practitioner pray. Christian Scientists believe that mortal life is unreal: they believe that understanding the spiritual universe created by God results in physical healing. All injuries and illnesses are treated this way — from paper cuts to cancer.
The year before, in 1974, federal regulations were enacted by the Nixon Administration that protected the rights of parents to choose religious treatment for their children even if it meant denying them urgently needed medical care. In 39 states and the District of Columbia, these exemptions are still in place even though in 1984 the Reagan Administration stopped mandating that states exempt parents from charges of religion-based medical neglect.
Years later, my bone disease was identified as osteomyelitis, a strep infection that can settle in a joint. While serious complications can develop, immediate treatment with antibiotics can result in a good outcome. But my family saw my swollen, stiff knee as a mortal illusion to be corrected through prayer. About five weeks from the onset, my leg began to drain an alarming amount of pus. My mother called a Christian Science practical nurse to help care for me — a nurse trained by the church in strictly non-medical methods and forbidden to diagnose disease or dispense medicine.
And I believed only prayer could help me: I never expected or even wanted medical treatment. I was bedridden for ten months in 1976. I lost weight. I couldn’t bear to have my mother hug me — the slightest motion was agony. I sensed I might die. Some nights, I was afraid I wouldn’t die. I was fourteen years old.
My school, friends and neighbors were aware I was seriously ill and being treated with prayer. At times I screamed in pain, but none of the neighbors investigated. Only the mother of my best friend was concerned enough to call a lawyer but was told it was unlikely that I could legally hospitalized. As a last-ditch effort, my friend’s mother sent an ambulance to our house. My mother told me afterward the driver said someone [was] having a baby.
This faith-based medical neglect hid me in plain sight behind the respectability of Christian Science, under the radar of politically correct religious tolerance. Even when they feared for my life, my parents seemed incapable of choosing medical help. By Christian Science policy, a practitioner may refuse to pray for clients who receive medical care, and my parents were terrified that hospitalizing me would lead to my death. Though I had a phone by my bed on those nights I cried, it never occurred to me to call anyone except the practitioner.
I outlasted the disease. My leg was scarred to the bone and my knee fused at an angle of about eighty degrees. But my school never asked for details when I finally lurched back to class on crutches after eighteen months, wrestling with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, claustrophobia, and panic attacks. Eventually I dropped out of high school.
Orthopedic specialists were unable to replace my fused knee. By the time I reached my forties, my foot and ankle had deteriorated until I could barely walk. Three years ago today, February 26th, 2007, I chose an above-knee amputation.
I remember clearly the agony and anguish I felt as a child. I remember that no adult stepped forward to end it. The law authorized my parents’ decision to leave me untreated, and the sanction of the law discouraged others from doing what is right. But refusing to act on the pain a child feels is criminal.
It is my sincere hope that my story will inspire the Obama Administration to realize that federal regulations must be amended. States that wish to receive federal funds must be required to remove these religious exemptions in their child abuse laws. My case is not unique: children today are in danger. Despite the abuse inflicted upon these children, most states are unable to pursue civil or criminal proceedings. The need to protect innocent children who are being hurt by these laws is urgent and immediate. When states aren’t required to document or classify cases of religion-based neglect — much less remove children from homes where this kind of abuse occurs — the consequences are completely unethical and morally unacceptable.
A new record of insanity
Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, cucumbers for sexual resemblance
And since men are not supposed to serve women, these food items are not likely to be available... sigh!
The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Senousa news, was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.
And since men are not supposed to serve women, these food items are not likely to be available... sigh!
Australian sentenced to 500 lashes in Saudi Arabia.
Sharia law is in action again. Blasphemy is a no victim "crime" and it is only in barbaric countries that free speech is suppressed like this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)